Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

In your view, what is the relation between sustainable soil use, management and conservation (including soil fertility and health) and gender equality?

What are the distinct roles for women, men, boys and girls in sustainable soil management?

The energetic group, for example the youth and men in their prime years can provide more (own) labour to agriculture than women. Boys and girls spend most of their time in school. But can help with less labour intensive farm activities when not in school.

What are the main gender-based constraints, including unequal gender relations and discriminatory norms that hinder sustainable soil management and contribute to soil degradation? What practical solutions and approaches could help overcoming such barriers?

Land ownership, the men tend to own the land, while not all youth and women own the land that they grow crops on. Ownership encourages investment in soil management practices that are capital intensive and have long term benefits. Without collateral (e.g. lack of title deeds), the youth and women have poor access to credit. Women are more disadvantages as they tend to be less educated than men. Men could be more likely to attend agricultural trainings than women.

The youth and men who aren’t elderly tend to invest in income generating agricultural activities compared to women and elderly men.

How can the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment contribute to sustainable soil management and conservation? Which interventions at policy and project/field level are of utmost priority? What are some potential entry points for success?

Interventions targeting land ownership, credit, input supply, and education (training) on good management practices should be a priority. For smallholders, interventions can be through community groups. For success, establishment of partnerships among different stakeholders (e.g. input suppliers, knowledge providers) along value chains necessary. What group to target is a dilemma; old farmers who have resources and can afford to invest in soil management practices may not be too keen to increase investments in agriculture, younger farmers who could be more interested in making changes cannot afford to invest more in agriculture, and females who own land may be elderly and poor. Empowering women and the youth needs for introduction of interventions to be through communities to get buy-in and support from all groups.